Glow 11 - Manual

Setting up Glow 11

Select your camera and select "Glow 11" in the Component menu or use the "Add Component" button in the inspector.
Component menu

For mobile targets it's recommended to enable "Use 32-bit Display Buffer" in PlayerSettings.

Glow settings

Glow settings

Reuse Depth Buffer

Activating this option will activate an alternate rendering mode which will reuse the depth buffer from the normal rendering pass for the glow rendering. Which mode is faster depends on the actual scene that is rendered.

This mode is not compatible with anti aliasing.

High Precision

Enables the use of higher precision Render Textures. Activate this option if you use high inner/outer/boost strength and the glow begins to look blocky.

Blur Modes

Glow 11 currently supports 3 different blur modes.

Default
The default blur mode used by Glow 11. It's specifically made to cover a large area to give a good looking glow on high DPI screens.
High Quality
This blur is a 'normal' gaussian blur. It is not recommended to use this on mobile devices
Unity Blur
The blur as used by the blur image effect in the "Image Effects" package".

Depending on the selected Blur Mode there will be different options to control the blur.

Blend Modes

The blend mode defines how the glow is blended into the scene.

Material settings

Material settings

Glow

Texture that can be used as a Glow source.

Glow Color

Color that can be used as a Glow source.

Glow Source

The glow source defines what texture/color is used for the glow. Depending on the actual Material the following options are possible.

Glow Multiplier

The glow can be multiplied by textures or colors. Depending on the actual Material the following options are possible.

Modify existing shaders

If you want to modify existing shaders to support glow just follow the following steps.

  1. Add the following properties to the shader. This is optional, it is also possible to omit all or one of these properties.
    _GlowTex ("Glow", 2D) = "" {}
    _GlowColor ("Glow Color", Color)  = (1,1,1,1)
    _GlowStrength ("Glow Strength", Float) = 1.0
  2. Depending on the shader you need to add one of the following tags to the shader.

    Opaque
    Tags { "RenderType"="Glow11" "RenderEffect"="Glow11" }
    Alpha blended
    Tags { "RenderType"="Glow11Transparent" "RenderEffect"="Glow11Transparent" }
    Alpha tested
    Tags { "RenderType"="Glow11TransparentCutout" "RenderEffect"="Glow11TransparentCutout" }
  3. Lastly you need to add the following line to the shader (simply add it before the last "}").
    CustomEditor "GlowMatInspector"

Changing glow settings at runtime

Every glow settings that can be made on the camera can also be done programatically at runtime.

Glow11.Glow11

Name Type
highPrecision bool
reuseDepth bool
blurMode Glow11.BlurMode
settings Glow11.Settings

Glow11.Settings

Name Type Affected Blur Mode
Default HighQuality UniyBlur
downsampleSteps int X
iterations int X X
blurSpread float X
innerStrength float X X X
outerStrength float X
boostStrength float X X X
blendMode Glow11.BlendMode X X X

Glow11.BlurMode

Possible values:

Glow11.BlendMode

Possible values:

Example

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;


public class AnimateOuterStrength : MonoBehaviour {
    private Glow11.Glow11 glow;

	void Start () {
        glow = Camera.main.GetComponent<Glow11.Glow11>();
        glow.blurMode = Glow11.BlurMode.Default;
    }

	void Update () {
	    glow.settings.outerStrength = Mathf.Abs(Mathf.Sin(Time.timeSinceLevelLoad));
	}
}